ActionScript 3.0 :: Searching For A String In A XML Node?

loading in xml in as3 (I followed the excellent Kirupa example [URL] and so far so good.

I now want to check if a certain string is present in a particular node and if so run a certain action. For example:

say my xml has a node like so:

<fruit>
<apples>
<item>Customer likes Granny Smith, Winesap and Fuji apples</item>
</apples >
</fruit>

How can I check if a string is present in a node eg

nodeVal = displayData.fruit.apples[i];
if(nodeVal == "Granny Smith"){
//perform certain action here
}